PASSERINE BIRDS OF NEW YORK 91 



The row oi greater coverts, usually eleven in number for each 

 wing, lie directly over the secondaries and tertiaries, but do not, 

 like the primary coverts, follow the moult of the remiges beneath 

 them. They usually reach full development before feather loss 

 fairly begins in the series beneath them ; and do not fall out 

 regularly but many of them at about the same time, the inner 

 feathers, however, being a little later than the others. This 

 row sometimes begins to fall before the inner primary is lost, 

 especially in young birds, usually very soon after. They are 

 more frequently renewed than are the tertiaries when a moult 

 of the body plumage occurs and often are renewed only in part. 

 At the prenuptial moult the inner members only may be re- 

 newed and one here and there so that a curious alternation of 

 old and new feathers results, some of the Warblers and Tana- 

 gers illustrating this point to perfection. The outer members 

 of the series are the ones most frequently left over and the 

 contrast in color is often striking, especially when precocious 

 young birds assume a few of adult pattern and color. 



The median coverts, eight in number for each wing, do not be- 

 gin to fall as a rule until the greater coverts on one side of them 

 and the lesser coverts on the other have been largely renewed. 

 Like all of the minor wing series this one falls out irregularly, 

 the tendency being for the outer members to be replaced 

 earlier. They are renewed whenever the other coverts show 

 moult and may like them be left over here and there until a 

 later moult. Young birds of the Summer Tanager {Pirajiga 

 rubra) may, for instance, have a red band of these feathers 

 across an otherwise greenish wing. 



The lesser coverts or cubital coverts clothing what are often 

 inappropriately called the "shoulders," are very small feathers 

 in several rows, usually about five, so easily disarranged that 

 it is difficult to follow their sequence in renewal. They seem to 

 moult in alternate rows, beginning with the row next to the one 

 that protects the anterior margin of the wing membrane, and 

 the last to be replaced are those nearest to the body and to the 

 median coverts. The series may be only partly renewed. The 

 feather loss begins as a rule just as the greater coverts are well 



